NEW DELHI: After Saturday's Ramlila Maidan swearing-in, Arvind Kejirwal drove to the IP Estate secretariat in a beaten blue Wagon R. No police outriders flanked him as he arrived to mark the beginning of the end of VIP culture.

His day-one decisions paved the way for the end of cars fitted with red beacons and PSOs for babus. Such cars will now be restricted to emergency operations and security will only be for those who face a threat.

As the day rolled, corridors of power out of bounds for the aam admi, were thrown open to the common man as their dreams of seeing Delhi cleansed of corruption seemed to come alive.

The secretariat's officious look was replaced with an air of casual ease. Reporters and camera crew flitted in and out. No digitized passes were needed.

The otherwise quiet third floor known as the "CMO and cabinet room" was no more sanitized. Securitymen sat by as AAP supporters in "mein aam aadmi hoon" and "mujhe chahiye swaraj" caps milled around outside the CM's office.

The staff looked restless. This was a restricted zone during the Congress days. The new culture which lacks the trappings of a VIP culture caught the bureaucrats off guard as they struggled to be more "aam aadmi" and less "babu". Ministers' offices were easily accessible. There was no protocol, no hierarchy as ministers walked in and out of their rooms getting to know officers.

Kejriwal was to hold his first cabinet meeting at 2pm but he landed before time and held an informal session with his ministers. He emerged in half-an-hour to address the media. In his first official briefing, the CM said his government was the "aam aadmi's" opportunity to seek solutions to problems like water, power and inflation. "We have just assumed office. We are aam aadmi".

"For Delhi's this is an opportunity to bring changes in areas like water and power, deal with problems like inflation," Kejirwal said. These and women's security, he said, were priority areas and the day saw the CM hold a series of meetings on these issues.

Seeking the bureaucracy's support he assured there would be no witch hunt. Knowing that hopes of the masses were high, Kejriwal at his very first cabinet meet decided to send out a strong message against VIP culture deciding in-principle to scrap red beacons for ministers and bureaucrats and PSOs for the these categories. A formal note defining the contours of the decisions will be tabled at a cabinet meeting.